Mediocre at best. good fun for the fans of the genre

Rating: 5/10 (19 December 2013)

I know, a lot of people will disagree (judging by the current rating of 7.1), but this movie has way too many things wrong with it, to simply ignore them and enjoy the light entertainment it is supposed to be.
First of all it ticks so many Hollywood stereotype boxes, it's not funny. Maybe the anime roots of the storyline are to blame, but I can really not stomach the "hero loses someone close to him", "hero overcomes the adversity", "hero gets the girl", "hero saves the world", etc. themes in this movie. It's a cliché after cliché and if it were done at least as a tongue-in-cheek adaptation, it would be worth something.
I really liked Charlie Hunnam in Sons of Anarchy and Green Street Hooligans, but he is HORRIBLE in this movie. Every time he said or did something in the movie, it came across forced, fake and simply unbelievably bad.
The FAKE Aussie accent of the Hansens' characters is abominable.
I think Idris Elba is one redeeming thing about this movie (acting wise). He and Ron Perlman make the movie bearable to watch. Ron btw doesn't even need to say any lines, he has a presence on the screen that itself can change the atmosphere of the whole movie.
In conclusion: I will most likely forget this movie very soon. 5 stars for Idris, Ron, awesome robots and CGI. Everything else about this movie is forgettable.